1st Gen The Kanto Elite Four

Before I begin this thread, I'd like to say that most of the Elite Four shouldn't be considered specialists of the types they claim to be experts of. Lorelei is fine because she has 4 Ice types. Bruno, I suppose, is also fine since they changed his team in LGPE to have a Poliwrath on the team. But, Agatha shouldn't be considered a Ghost type specialist. All of her Pokemon are part Poison, in some way. There's also only one Ghost type in Kanto, and even in LGPE she has mostly Poison over Ghost. Lance in Gen I is obviously victim of this, too, but Kanto also only has one Dragon type.

Anyway, the Kanto Elite Four was the first Elite Four in the franchise. Like I stated above, the Kanto Elite four consists of Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha and Lance. The Champion is your rival. Three years later, in G/S/C and their remakes the elite four had been drastically changed. The new Elite Four members were Will, Koga and Karen while Lance had become the Champion. Bruno was the only Elite Four member that remained.

That being said, what did you guys think of the Kanto Elite Four?

What do you think happened to the members that left? Lorelei and Agatha aren't mentioned in G/S/C, so I always wondered what people think happened to them. I honestly think Lorelei left her position to help her hometown in the Sevii Islands. Agatha probably retired. Those are just my thoughts, though.

Original Kanto E4 is the only E4 that I can name all members of. I really love the theory that Lance is really Flying-type expert and only claims to be Dragon-type expert to intimidate other trainers.

As Johto version of this E4, I always forget the names of the Dark-type and Psychic-type trainers. It was nice to see Koga there, it kinda make sense that the E4 would change in 3 years. I thought Agatha died, since she was pretty old. I never really thought about Lorelei, but since she was the weakest member of original E4, I would say she was just replaced by stronger trainers.

for me, the most intimidating elite four was the Kanto's (Gen 1, 3) and Unova's. well, reading the adventures manga may have screwed my "intimidation factor" but I like how they really look strong in the games. you just know that they're extraordinary trainers!

for their futures though, I've never really thought about it. agatha's may have left because of age but I guess the others were replaced because they were no longer interested in being part of the elite four anymore

Yeah I really felt like the 'original' Elite Four were pretty powerful and scary! I always found Bruno a pushover tbh but Lance gave 10 year old me nightmares haha, they've always remained four iconic trainers in my mind anyway, probably cause I grew up fighting them. As for in the Johto games, I liked how Koga became an E4 member, it definitely made the world feel alive and was a nice little throwback for the Kanto games. Also, Karen and her damn Umbreon are tough.

The Kanto Elite Four are easily the most iconic ones for me, and I think they are great and also pretty intimidating. (Yes its slightly because I read the adventures manga but eh)
I have more ingame experience with the Johto Elite Four than the Kanto Elite Four, I just find the 2 new members other than Koga to be pretty forgettable compared to Agatha and Lorelei.
Now that you mention it, I never really thought about what happened to Agatha and Lorelei before, so, I guess I agree with what Palamon said.
But I personally prefer the Unova Elite Four slightly.

I've always felt the Kanto Elite Four are a little unbalanced, although maybe that's because of the way I structured my team and the lack of understand I had about game mechanics at the time: Lorelei was really difficult for me, I steamrollered Bruno, had a lot of trouble with Agatha's Gengar, and never would have gotten past Lance with Articuno's Ice Beam...and even then he had that Gyarados.

I have no idea what possessed them to let Koga be a member of the Elite Four in Johto...he was never that noteworthy a Gym Leader. I think Blaine actually would have made more sense, given the state of Cinnabar Island in Johto, although as he's of a similar-ish age to Agatha perhaps not...Giovanni would have been a VERY interesting choice, too. Agatha retiring makes sense, and Lorelei...who knows.

Apparently Misty was originally meant to be in the gen 2 elite four, which would have been awesome.

Giovanni would have also been a good choice. He was Kanto's toughest Gym Leader after all. He is also meant to have disbanded Team Rocket and turned over a new leaf after his defeat in the first gen. It would have been fitting to see a reformed Giovanni as a member of the Kanto elite 4 in gen 2 rather than him just being MIA.

But I guess Koga was okay...? : /

It's possible that Lorelei stepped down because she is from the Sevii Islands, which Team Rocket did spread their dirty deeds to. She most likely found a new commitment in life to be a guardian of some sort in her home island, using her experience and influence for even greater good.

Agatha is an interesting case. I do not suspect that she'd pass away three years after Red became Champion. She would be eligible for retirement by then, depending on how that works in Pokémon.

Will and Karen never appeared in the anime, right? Bruno did, but he's not part of the Elite Four. And Koga joining the Elite Four in the anime? I don't think so. With that Golbat of his being beaten by a Charmander? 😂